Mounting Segregation
by Pure Chocolatte
Summary: He's come back to Konoha. But Team 7 no longer exists. Songfic.


Title: Mounting Segregation

A/N: This fic is a mere speculation of what could happen, deriving from the latest development in around Chapter 368. What happens when Naruto and Sakura bring Sasuke back to Konoha? Everything doesn't quite revert back to normal, no matter how much they want it to.

Do not own. Do not own show, do not own song (Operator The Line Is Dead), do not own money. I'm just a sad little fanfic writer who should be revising her studies for her finals right now and finishing her project, because _that_, unfortunately I _do_ own, of all things. -sigh- I really am an idiot. The song is really cool, by the way.

**Mounting Segregation**

He was back. He had come back to Konoha, and was sitting peacefully with his friends as they had a picnic to celebrate his home-coming. The food was gone and it was now time to talk, catch up. But there was only silence, and it was not the pleasant type.

_I guess I never wanted this  
Another 'ever after' kiss... Oh  
Operator, the line is dead  
Oh no, it's only me and all the walls inside my head_

He looked at the two people sitting next to him and didn't know what to say. As in _really_ didn't know. He didn't have any smartass comments for the blonde nor anything cutting to say to the girl. The fact that they weren't talking to him either was unusual too. Usually Naruto tried to drag him into everything, forcing a challenge or two his way. Usually Sakura tried to get him to like her with her false-cheery voice.

Not anymore.

He watched his two teammates. _Former teammates_, he corrected himself. Ever since he was dragged back to Konoha by Naruto and his team, he had felt like this place was no longer what it was when he left. He had put up a big fight when Naruto wanted him to follow him back to Konoha after they defeated Itachi, but it was based more on his pride and indignation than actually resenting the village in any way.

But he followed nonetheless, though not without a big brawl in which he could distinctly remember Naruto throwing the words "ungrateful jerk", "pigheaded bastard" and "unfeeling bastard" amongst his punches and kicks. But they were happy when he finally did come back with them, but only because he didn't have any place to sleep that night, he told them. Team Hebi had split up (yes, even Karin had left her _'Sasuke-kuuun'_, while Sakura was reminded horribly of her former love-sick self) and Sasuke had gone home.

_And for the record I was lost  
With only one road I could never cross  
And that's the road that takes me here  
Oh no, not again  
This is where it started _

This wasn't home, Sasuke had thought, the very second he stepped through the village gates. Everywhere he looked, the villagers that once viewed him with sympathy and compassion -though he never liked those pitiful looks- now looked at him with suspicion and doubt, as if afraid he would betray them and run off once again.

No fangirls, no friends had run up to greet him, as they would have done some years ago. Ino merely gave an empty smile before going back into her flower shop. Lee had greeted him with a polite handshake and nothing more. Kiba just scratched the back of his head and was off, mumbling something about Akamaru's feeding time. Kakashi had smile (they thought he was, but they weren't sure, what with the mask and all) and poofed off to read his novel, but no one could tell what this meant as he was like that to just about everyone and everything he met, regardless. Chouji said 'hi' but ate his chips faster than usual as if really nervous when he greeted them. Quite a feat for an Akimichi.

His two companions had brushed it of as temporary unease, because they had not seen him for so long. But he had realized it wasn't that trivial. While he never considered them close before, they were now complete strangers.

Only, this two friends (dare he still consider them that?) had still interacted with him, sort of.

He looked again at the pair. They caught his gaze and turned around to look at him. Naruto smiled widely, but he detected some sort of awkwardness, sheepishness behind the grin. Naruto being awkward to _anyone_ didn't sit well with him. Sakura smiled too, but it was a tiny one and she didn't meet his eye.

_I need you, I'm for you  
You threw me, I caught you  
Don't leave me and say that you want to find a way back  
Believe me, I followed all you said... Oh  
Operator, the line is dead_

Sasuke tried to smile too, honest. But it just wouldn't come. He couldn't even force the smile out, be it an insincere one. He tried smirking instead, it was what he was good at around them, since he always thought himself above them and still did. But that also didn't work. So he just sat there staring at the two of them.

Sure, he had betrayed the village, but he had never wanted them as enemies in the first place. Only if they got in the way. That was still considered fine by his standards. He may have broken the bonds of friendship with them, but he had never forged bonds of hatred with them either.

So what was wrong?

_How come you never look away  
Everybody bought but I paid  
You're not the one who left me here  
Oh no, that was me and all the things I wanted _

Argh, why were they even trying? He could see that they were as uncomfortable as him. He never asked to come back. Then again, he never thought about what he would do after his brother was done away by his hand. Now he could see how much this had taken up his life, but it was too late to change anything now. He wanted to blame it on Itachi, but even that didn't seem right anymore. Because it wasn't Itachi that had made Sasuke leave the village, it was his own free will. He was the one had succumbed to the temptation of power.

This was bad, if he was starting to see an error in his ways (Uchiha Sasuke does _not_ make mistakes), because he had always believed he made the right choice. Maybe 'right' was not the appropriate word. He made the _smart_ choice.

They were still looking at him weirdly and no one had said anything yet. His lips tightened. If this was such a big effort, they should have just left him, shouldn't they? No doubt Suigetsu or Juugo might have offered him a home of some sort. At worse, he could've gone off with Karin. But no, they had to bring him back here, where he wasn't welcomed anymore.

_Where he wasn't needed anymore,_ he realized.

_But now I find you different  
You broke up all the walls in my head  
Please don't go, let me _

_Need you, I want you  
You know that I found you  
Don't leave me and say that you want to find a way back  
Believe me, I followed all you said... Oh  
Operator, the line is dead _

Suddenly, Sasuke felt cold all over. The desire for the feeling of being needed that had been pushed aside by his vehemence to annihilate his brother now resurfaced in a rush. And yet, now was when the need seem to have disappeared. He had no doubt in his mind that they would be fine without him here. They would be laughing and chatting, nothing would be wrong with the picture. Only that he was missing from the group, some would say. But now that he was here, something else went wrong. It was like looking at a picture and figuring out that a tree was missing. But when the tree was added, the paint around it just smudged really badly.

They had brought him back. Yet, what good had it done?

Naruto and Sakura exchanged a frown. Why weren't they getting any response from him? He wasn't angry with them, was he?

Sakura bit her lip and tried to reach out to touch his hand in a comforting gesture and found that she couldn't, though as to why, she didn't know. She used to dream of it so much, to hold Sasuke's hand and get a loving response from him. Now, she couldn't even seem to comfort him as a friend, an old comrade.

She played with the lid of an empty sandwich container, and found herself wishing that it was Sai there in Sasuke's place instead because then, things would have been much better. She quickly stopped herself.

This was what they had always wanted. They wished on countless stars, made infinite meaningful promises, completed endless training, did intense tracking. It was all to have Sasuke back. To have Team 7 back. She should be condemned as a traitor for even thinking about Sai now.

Only, this wasn't Team 7, was it?

Naruto gulped down some lemonade and tried to think of something, _anything_, to liven this outing up. He came to a blank wall. What was he suppose to do now? Sasuke was right there after so many years, and he didn't what to do with himself. He brought him back because of a promise, because of the bonds, but this was not how friends should act. Friends forgive and forget. He had forgiven Sasuke and he knew Sakura had too. It was the forgetting that was the hard part.

What if they said or did something wrong? Offended him in some way? Then there would probably be no turning back. Or was there already no hope?

_I guess I never wanted this  
Another 'ever after' kiss... Oh  
Operator, the line is dead  
Oh no, it's only me and all the walls inside my head _

They help him, they accepted him back. It was just like the good old times, when they were still Team 7, right? Everyone was a part of that team, no more, no less.

Then, where was the joking, the laughing, the teasing, the (mostly) friendly arguing? It was so quiet now, not a sound from all three of them -even the munching and chewing sounds had ceased- where last time, there would probably have been a food fight by now.

He was starting to question whether it had been worth it after all. He was comparing the importance of the bonds of a brotherhood and friendship to those of hatred and revenge. But they wouldn't have understood either way, wouldn't have known how frustrated, how angry, how full of loathing he'd felt as he watched his brother kill everyone that made up his world. And the center, the core of his world was Itachi himself.

The fact that he hadn't been able to do anything (if he had only been stronger, just a little bit stronger), made him feel weak and inferior. He couldn't have passed up the chance to become stronger than even Itachi. He would've regretted it, he knew. Because the fact that he was still sitting in this village and being a weak insignificant genin was even worse. His brother, the murderer of his entire clan was out there scot free and guiltless, while he suffered the pain and conflict.

He would have never forgiven himself if he let that continue. It was something he had to do; avenging his clan. His brother should suffer as Sasuke had, watch his world fall apart as he had, and die as their parents had. Then only, would Sasuke be released, freed from those bonds between them.

No, no one else would ever understand that feeling.

_Need you, I'm for you  
You threw me, I caught you  
Don't leave me and say that you want to find a way back  
Believe me, I followed all you said... Oh  
Operator, the line is dead_

_I need you, I'm for you (All you've said)  
You threw me, I caught you (All you've said)  
Don't leave me and say that you want  
to find a way back (All you said)  
Believe me, I followed all you said... Oh  
Operator, the line is dead_

As they sat there, on a worn old picnic blanket of Sakura's, Naruto pulling up bits of grass, Sakura still toying with the container's lid, and Sasuke just staring at them (not into their eyes, maybe a spot on their chin), it could be said that they were so close, yet just really, really far away from each other.

The truth was glaring brighter and brighter at them, even as they tried harder and harder to ignore it. No matter how much they wanted, Sasuke didn't belong here, not anymore.

A/N: Uwah! Kind of a sad fic, ne? Because I think all of us are hoping for an intense (awesome, dramatic, emotional, bloody, and lotsa-lotsa-crying-and-epiphanies-happening) battle between the Naruto and Sasuke and then the latter will somehow end up going back to Konoha and everyone will be all happy happy joy joy and everything will be normal again.

Either that, or that one of them dies and the other cries and cries and regrets everything he's ever done in his entire life (even that time when he forgot to flush the toilet), and wishes it had all come out differently.

But I'm still hoping for reviews, pretty please? Thx.


End file.
